Understanding
by Kalika
Summary: Ken tries to reason with Black WarGreymon. Revised Version.


Disclaimer: Digimon doesn't belong to me ****

Disclaimer: Digimon doesn't belong to me. None of the characters belong to me. I'm not even sure if my brain belongs to me(I don't know where I'm going with this). Anyways, since nothing in this story(except the plot) belongs to me, there's really no point in getting angry. Have a great day. 

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Note: This story takes place between episode 32(If I Only Had a Heart) and episode 34(A Chance Encounter). I know the story starts off kind of boring, and it might be hard to follow at some points, but believe me. It does get better as you read on. Thanks.

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Another Note: This is the second time I've posted this story. I made a few changes, and would like to thank Trepidatio for his review and correction to one of my(I'm sure many) small problems I had in this story. I'd say what the correction is but then it will ruin the surprise. All I can saw is that it has to do with some of the medical info near the end of the story. Thanks again for the help. 

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Understanding

by Kalika

"Hey, Ken. How's it going?" Davis cried happily as he ran up to his friend. As Always Davis seemed hyperactive and ready to do anything. "What are you doing in this neighbourhood? It's kind of far from home isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I just felt like going for a walk. Guess I went farther than I planned to." Ken smiled. Davis could make him laugh just by smiling. It was really an amazing gift.

"Well since you're in the neighbourhood, want to drop by my place? It's just around the corner, and about five blocks down. It's on your way."

"Sorry, Davis. I have to go home. I've got some things to do." Ken smiled gently as he waked down the street with Davis until he had to take a different street to get home.

Ken had made up his mind. He was going to the digital world to try and talk some sense into Black War Greymon, and he was going alone. This plan was a long shot and he wasn't going to endanger Wormmon by taking him along.

After leaving Leafmon a note explaining that he was going to the digital world, Ken opened the digi port and went through.

I guess this is the place' Ken thought to himself as he neared the valley. There deep in the centre of the valley was the destiny stone that he was looking for. Quickly he made his way down. He couldn't see Black War Greymon, but his D-terminal showed that he was closing in on the stone as well. 

Suddenly he was there. Directly in front of Ken. Black War Greymon growled angrily when he saw that the digidestined were there. The suddenly he realised, only one of them was there. And without his digimon too. There was no way he could be stopped.

Ken stared directly into Black War Greymon's face. I'm not going to back down. he needs to understand what he is doing. I'll make him understand or I'll die trying.'

"You are in my way," growled Black War Greymon.

" I think you and I need to talk."

" About what?"

"What you've been doing," Ken said softly. " I don't think you understand all the pain you're causing. You need to listen to me."

"Just get out of my way! I will destroy that destiny stone whether you are standing on it or not," Black War Greymon yelled as he pulled his arm back to deliver a blow.

" Go ahead and destroy it." Ken sat down very suddenly on top of the stone. "I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

Black War Greymon sighed and lowered his arm. "What do you want to talk about? Hmmm? It had better be important, or you'll be sorry you got in my way."

"You need to understand something about yourself. And I think that Im the only person around who understands what you are going through."

"How do you understand what I'm going through? You don't know me." With that Black War Greymon began to advance towards the destiny stone again.

"I do know what you are searching for." Ken paused slightly. "You want to find your heart and fulfil your destiny."

Black War Greymon looked shocked. That was why he was doing this! How could this human child possibly know about that? He had never told anyone. In fact he wasn't even sure if this was his destiny in the first place.

"All right. You've intrigued me," Black War Greymon said coolly as he stopped directly before the destiny stone. He stared into the boy's face and saw a fierce determination burning in his eyes. This child wasn't going to give up the stone without a fight.

"Are you willing to listen to me now?" Ken asked suddenly. He was relieved that he had at least managed to get Black War Greymon to stop advancing. Now, if he could just get the digimon to see that what he was doing was wrong.

"Are you going to tell me anything, or not," Black War Greymon demanded impatiently.

"I will but you must promise to listen to everything I have to say without question," Ken replied. "Can you do that?"

"Yes I can," Black War Greymon replied more curious than he had been before. The boy was so sure that he could explain things to him then Black War Greymon would let him try.

"All right. My name is Ken by the way."

"Hello, Ken," whispered Black War Greymon before adding, "I pray, for your sake, that you are not wasting my time." As Black War Greymon sat down, Ken began his story.

"Before you appeared in the digital world there was a great evil running free. I was that evil. I called myself the Digimon Emperor. I enslaved helpless digimon and use them to help me in my quest to control the digital world.

"I was ruthless because I believed that it was my destiny to rule the entire digital world. I didn't care about anyone but myself.

"But as I followed my plans I slowly began to be overrun by the evil inside of me. I had lost my heart. I didn't care about anyone or anything. The only emotions I had were anger, hate, and fear.

"I never saw the pain I caused until it was too late. It took the loss of someone very dear to me, to open my eyes to what I was doing.

"Now you see. I believed the conquest of the digital world was my destiny, just as you see, destroying the destiny stones and defeating that unknown digimon as your destiny. You don't realise all of the pain that you are causing, or the destruction that loss of the destiny stones will cause to both my world an yours."

"Do you understand what I mean now?" asked Ken as he finished his story. He was startled by the expression on Black War Greymon's face. Ken had expected anger or confusion, but all he say was an expression of complete sadness. Maybe he had actually gotten through to Black War Greymon.

"Yes I do understand you," Black War Greymon whispered softly. "I see that I have been careless, I haven't thought of anyone but myself. I do have one question for you though."

"Yes."

"Why did you become the Digimon Emperor in the first place? Were you confused like I was? Were you trying to find out who you were?"

"Um sort of," Ken replied hesitantly. Should I tell him why. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. But look at him, if I don't answer he may decide that I was lying and go back to destroying the destiny stones.' Ken stared at Black War Greymon for what seemed like an eternity before finally answering. "I had just lost someone who was close to me. I was feeling guilty and Aruchenimon used my emotions to take control of me. She made me forget who I was before and set me angry and lost upon the digital world."

Black War Greymon looked at Ken silently for a few moments before he nodded slowly. "I see. So you did not know why you did the things you did. You just did what you had been programmed to." Ken nodded weakly. "I understand."

Ken looked up, surprised. "You do?" he asked quickly.

Black War Greymon was shocked to see the hope that was shining Ken's eyes. He almost seems to need my understanding,' Black War Greymon thought to himself. "Yes I do you have helped me come to an important decision. I will leave the destiny stones alone. I will find that unknown digimon some other way. Of course that is only until I discover a new destiny for myself." He extended his hand for Ken to shake.

"Ken, you have helped my see my errors. Thank you so very much." Black War Greymon turned around. "I see your friends are coming. I'm sure they will be very proud of you. If you wish to leave with them I will stay to protect the stone."

Ken turned to look in the direction that Black War Greymon had indicated. It was Davis, Raydramon, Wormmon, Cody, Digmon, Yolie, and Halsemon. They were running up as quickly as they could. They had seen Black War Greymon raise his hand towards Ken and thought that he was going to injury the boy.

"Thank you Black War Greymon." Ken smiled gently as he turned back to the large digimon. He had not noticed the looks of panic on his friends faces. "I hope that you can find a new destiny for yourself. One that will truly make you happy, not one that just gives you a mission to take up your extra time. I also hope that you can become our friend."

Black War Greymon was so surprised by the statement that he agreed without a second thought. When he thought what he had done he realised that he was happy with himself. He liked the idea of having a friend.

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"Ken, are you all right?" cried Wormmon as he came riding up on Raydramon's back with Davis.

"I'm fine," he called down with a cheerful wave.

"What is he doing here?" Yolie asked pointing at Black War Greymon. "Should we attack? He's not exactly trying to destroy the stone."

"Don't attack him. I'll explain when I get down," Ken called from the top of the destiny stone.

"Why don't you explain now, Emperor?" said an unwelcome voice.

"It's Arukenimon!" cried Davis. She was climbing out of her car along with Mummymon. They were both in their non-human forms. Neither of them looked very happy.

"You just lost me a very good operative, Emperor. I think that your interference in my affairs can no longer be tolerated." With that she and Mummymon both attacked the destiny stone at the same time. 

They succeeded in blowing the entire destiny stone into rubble. Ken cried out as he was thrown into the air by the blast. The digidestined and their digimon watched in horror as Ken was slammed into a wall of stone before he dropped to the ground and was buried under the falling rocks from the once whole destiny stone.

Black War Greymon cried out in anger at the sight before he turned and viciously attacked Arukenimon and Mummymon. Raydramon, Digmon and Halsemon attacked them as well. They threw every attack they had at the two, but they were so upset that they couldn't aim straight. Luckily they were able to drive the two of them away.

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"Ken!" screamed Wormmon as he ran to where his friend had fallen. The others were all following close behind. They reached to pile of rock but were at a loss as to what to do. The stones were to large for them to lift, even if they all worked together.

"Ken." Wormmon sobbed weakly when he saw the boy genius' hand sticking out from beneath the rubble. The hand was crushed and covered with dark red blood. Wormmon ignored the blood as he rubbed his head against the only part of his friend he could reach.

"Ken," Davis cried, "can you hear me? Ken! Answer me please!" Davis struggled to move one of the stones close to him. I wouldn't budge. "Ken, please, answer me please. You have to be okay. Come on!"

Yolie, and Cody were also trying to move the stones, but they couldn't bring themselves to speak. They were to frightened to open their mouths.

As soon as Arukenimon and Mummymon were gone the digimon tuned and ran back to help get Ken. They were so worried that they didn't even notice that Black War Greymon was coming with them. 

They reached their partners and were frightened by what they saw. Davis was still trying pointlessly to move the boulders off of Ken. Yolie had dropped to her knees and was crying softly. Cody seemed to be frozen in place although he appeared to be whispering to himself. Every few moments a single tear would run down his cheek. But the most heartbreaking sight was Wormmon. He was sobbing horribly as he cried out his partner's name again and again.

The digimon quickly began to move the rocks away, but they were very heavy. It took about 2 min just to move one stone out of the way. Suddenly, Black War Greymon picked up one of the boulders and lifted it up and out of the way. The others turned to look at him, surprised, before turning back to continue removing stones. As far as they were concerned, if he was helping, then just let him help.

It took about 5 min before they could see another part of Ken besides the hand that Wormmon still had in a death grip. The first thing they reached was his left leg. Yolie screamed when she saw it. Davis almost threw up from the sight. Ken's leg was just as bloody as his hand was. What was even more frightening about it was the fact that it was almost twisted around backwards. He had to have broken it in at least six different places. 

Cody stared at the sight with the same expression on his face, but he seemed to start whispering to himself more quickly. Yolie collapsed the rest of the way to the ground with her face in her hands. Davis groaned but continued to move the smaller bits of rock out of the way. 

Black War Greymon continued to remove the stones with out pausing. He refused to lose his only friend just 30 min after they had met. After another 10 min Ken's face could finally be seen. Compared to what they had seen of the rest of him, his face was relatively normal. There was a long gash along one of his cheeks, and he had a split lip, but that was the extent of the injuries that they could see.

3 min later Ken was completely free of the stones. Yolie, Cody, and Wormmon still hadn't moved though Wormmon had started to cry "Ken, please! Wake up!" over and over again. Davis ran to Ken's side and checked his pulse. It was barely noticeable.

"We need to get him to a hospital," Davis yelled.

"We can't risk moving him," Cody said quietly. "He could have back injuries. Moving him around could kill him."

"Let me do it," offered Black War Greymon. "I can keep him from moving. Where do you need to go?"

"Uh we need to get to a digi port so we can reach the real world." Davis answered hesitantly. Can we actually trust this guy, he hasn't exactly been civil in the past. But then again, he didn't have to help us, he could have just left Ken there to die.' Davis turned back and rechecked Ken's pulse. It was even worse than before! That's it. Whether he's good or not we need his help.'

"All right," Davis agreed. "Follow us to the digi port."

The children mounted their partners and prepared to go. They decided that it wasn't safe to leave Wormmon with Ken. He could unintentionally jar Ken causing further injuries. Davis reached down from Raydramon's back and picked Wormmon up. Tightly wrapping his arms around the crying digimon, he told everyone to move out.

Black War Greymon bent down and, shoving his claws into the ground, picked up Ken and the land that he had been laying on.

Yolie had e-mailed ahead to tell the others to call an ambulance and have the computer in a large open area where they couldn't be easily seen. The digidestined on Earth assured Yolie that everything would be ready for their arrival.

Very quickly the party reached the digi port and prepared to go through. Yolie e-mailed the others and was told that everything was ready. She nodded quickly to Davis who was standing over Ken, watching him to make sure that he was still breathing.

Cody, Yolie and the digimon went through first in order to make sure that everyone was out of the way. They received a few worried stares and questions as soon they were through, but they shrugged them off and went about making sure that everyone was a good distance from the digi port.

Suddenly, in the digital world, just as the rest were preparing to go through the digi port, Ken gasped and woke up. Davis cried out in joy. Ken looked up at him and smiled. Davis and the others could see that the smile was filled with pain. They also noticed that Ken hadn't moved any part of his body except for his face.

Ken looked past Davis at Black War Greymon who smiled gently at the boy in his hands. "Can you still look after the destiny stones?" Ken asked softly. The effort to speak seemed to be incredibly painful for the boy.

"Yes," replied Black War Greymon. "As soon as you are safe in your world I will return to guard the destiny stones from Arukenimon. Ken, thank you for showing me that I was wrong. You are a true friend."

Ken smiled weakly at that before he passed out again. With that Davis and Black War Greymon went through the digi port. They appeared in the digital world to surprised cries and frightened gasps.

Gently, Black War Greymon placed Ken on the ground. He turned to Davis before heading back through the portal. "I will watch the remaining destiny stone for as long as I am needed to. You do not have to worry about the digital world for now." With that said, he stepped back into the portal and disappeared.

Davis turned around and saw that everyone was staring at Ken in shock. Wormmon cried softly as Yolie held him in a tight hug. Joe was trying to find Ken's pulse with a frightened look in his eyes. Suddenly, they heard a siren heading towards them.

Davis, sighed as he walked into Ken's hospital room. It had been a month already and Ken had still not regained consciousness since that brief conversation beside the digi port.

It really wasn't surprising. After all, when the ambulance had finally reached them, Ken's heart had already stopped. They had barely been able to restart it. Besides that Ken had a severely fractured left leg, crushed lower arm and hand, and worst of all was his spine. Three of the vertebras had been crushed from when he had hit the wall. There were also minor injuries like the scar that ran down his left cheek, a long cut across his abdomen, and a minor concussion.

"Hey, Ken. How's it going? Do you feel any better?" Davis asked of the unconscious boy feeling a little bit silly. He had done this every day that he came to visit Ken, and every time he had felt stupid about it. But he just hated to sit there just looking at Ken in the silence. It was very unnerving sometimes.

"So. Uh. Oh, hey good news. Arukenimon hasn't tried to destroy anymore destiny stones. Black War Greymon must be doing a good job of guarding them. In fact no one in the digital world has seen Arukenimon or Mummymon since you know." He paused for a moment. "Wormmon really misses you. I bring him by whenever I can to see you. You know it really doesn't seem to cheer him up all that much. I think he blames himself for not being able to protect you. I guess he just likes to be near you. I can understand that. We all miss you."

Davis reached out and squeezed Ken's hand(the not crushed one) gently. "When I get a hold of the Arukenimon, I'm going to rip her to pieces with my bare hands."

"That sounds like a good plan. Maybe then you could go and solve world hunger all by yourself."

Davis looked up startled. Ken was awake. His eyes were clouded with pain but there was the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Davis gasped and stared at Ken in complete shock. His eyes seemed to have trouble focusing on Davis's face, but hopefully that was just because of the concussion and the pain killer's in Ken's system.

"You're awake? You're awake. You're awake! I've gotta get a doctor." Davis cried happily as he ran from the room to do just that. He came back a moment later with a huge grin on his face. "How do you feel? What hurts? Can you move? I should tell the others that you're awake." He said all of this without stopping for a breath once.

"Don't have a heart attack Davis," Ken rasped. His voice was scratchy because he hadn't used it in so long. "You could e-mail the others if you want to. Maybe Wormmon? I'd really like to see hi" Ken broke of into a fit of coughing. 

"Hey, Ken take it easy. You've been unconcious for the last month. You really need to slow down." Davis cried with worry as he helped Ken drink some of the water that had been set out for him.

"I think that's good advice." said the doctor as he stepped into the room. "Now, Ken we are going to need to run some tests soon. Do you mind if we start now. I just need a small blood sample to see if you have any dangerous infections. I know you would like to see your friends right away, but I think you should wait for a few more days. At least until we are sure that you are improving. Of course, your parents can come whenever they like. In fact I'll go call them right away. Oh, and your friend here can come when ever he likes, too. In fact he's been here almost every day since you were brought in. Anyways other than those three people, I don't think you should see anyone for the next five days at least. I may alter that time depending on how quickly you seem to be recovering." With that the doctor left to call Ken's parents.

"You've really been here every day?" Ken asked.

"Well, you know, there wasn't much else to do. So, uh, I guess you want to be alone with your parents. I'll just leave. Oh" Davis turned at the doorway. "I'll bring Wormmon by tomorrow. He's staying at my place."

"Thank you, Davis. I would really appreciate it." Suddenly Ken yawned. "Oh, I'm tired."

"Hey, the doctor said not to push it too fast. You sleep, you need to at least be awake when your parents get here. I don't think you'd be able to talk to them if you are asleep. Good night Ken."

"Good night, Davis. And thank you for being here fo" 

Davis smiled as Ken fell asleep in the middle of his sentence. I'll see you tomorrow Ken. I'm glad you're O.K.'

"Hey, Ken. How's it going?" Davis asked with a smile. Ken smiled back as he walked into the room on his crutches.

"Fine, Davis." Ken limped over and sat down beside his friend. "Are we going to the digital world today?"

"Umyeah. Look are you sure you should be going?"

"It's been 9 months hasn't it." Ken sighed. They'd had this conversation before and Ken had lost every time. The others just didn't think he was in good enough shape to go with them. "Please, Davis. I really want to help. I'm fine really. You guys don't have to worry about me."

"Ken, we just don't want you to get hurt again. I'm sure we can handle this on our own. Tentomon says that Arukenimon is heading for another destiny stone. Black War Greymon is already there. We can take care of it," Davis said quietly. He didn't want to keep Ken away from the digital world for ever, he was just afraid.

"Davis, I'm coming whether you want me to or not. I can access the digi port from my own bedroom you know." Ken was starting to get angry. I'm getting so tired of this. Do they really think I'm so incompetent that I can't walk around without hurting myself No They're just worried, I can understand that. But it's getting old.' "Davis if you are going to make me wait until I can walk without the crutches, then it's going to be about four months."

"Is that what the doctor said?" Davis gasped. "Are you sure it'll take that long?"

"Yeah. For the crutches. After that I'm going to need a cane for maybe a year or two." Ken heard Davis stifle a cry of surprise. He sighed softly and looked down at the floor. I didn't want to tell him like this but it just sort of slipped out. Oh well, now I don't have to worry about how he's going to take it.'

"Well come on, Ken. We better get going, the others are already there." Ken looked up slowly. Davis was smiling supportively, but Ken could just barely see the tears in his eyes. Ken smiled too, as he let Davis help him out of his chair.

The End

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Note: I was considering writing a sequel to this story, but if I do, it may take awhile. I'm working on a lot of different fanfics right now. But if anyone has any ideas they want me to use in the sequel, put them in your review, and I'll see what I can do about getting the second story written. Thanks.


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